Choosing the best plant for your garden

Friday

Apr 20, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 20, 2012 at 7:21 PM

Dan Rodgers column

Dan Rodgers

By the middle of April we should no longer have to worry about frost occurring in this area, so its likely to be safe to plant tender annuals now. Many of us have mowed several times already, and we're ready to take a break from this chore to prepare some landscape beds that will bring color to our property for the rest of the year.

Because we are busy taking care of daily tasks, most people want to put in plants that will bloom from spring to fall and that will return year after year. While I understand the sentiment, landscaping just isn't that easy.

Perennial plants are those that return each year without having to be replanted, but most perennials only bloom for a few weeks. After they bloom, the leaves may stay green for a little while longer before they turn yellow and drop to the ground. Then you're left with an empty space until the following spring when the plant will grow again.

This isn't true of all perennials, but the bulk of them fall into this category. Asiatic lilies are covered with beautiful blooms when you buy them in the garden center, but within a month the flowers are just a memory and you're left with a brown stem to deal with.

Some perennials will flower for most of the summer and even into the fall months. There are several varieties of coreopsis, a native prairie plant that usually sports yellow flowers, and these will persist from late spring until frost kills them back in October. Dwarf coreopsis only grows a foot or so tall, while other varieties may reach over two feet.

The showy evening primrose is another perennial with an extended bloom period, its pink and white flowers forming a mat of ground cover. This is another native plant that can be found growing wild in fields and along roadsides, and it makes an excellent addition to the perennial bed if you have a large area. Showy evening primrose can be pretty invasive, however, and hard to get rid of if it gets out of hand.

Many people grow hosta in the shady parts of their landscape beds, and this plant will spread quickly, as well. There are hundreds of varieties of hostas with leaves that range from tiny to very large, and these come with different patterns of green, white, and even yellow.

While hosta does have white or lavender flowers that grow on tall stalks during the summer, it is the foliage of this plant that is its main appeal. Often planted with ferns, hosta is a mainstay in the shade garden.

Astilbe is another shade plant, but it's finely cut leaves won't hold up as long as those of the hosta. The flowers are wispy and usually bloom pink or white, but these are gone by mid June.

Coral bells will last quite a bit longer, its burgundy or purplish leaves holding on for most of the summer. While coral bells will do better in the shade, I have seen specimens growing in full sun that seemed to be doing just fine.

Black-eyed Susan has a daisy-like flower that is yellow with a brown center. It thrives in sunny fields and along roadsides and will spread to form large colonies. While we think of each plant having a single flower, each is actually an inflorescence made up of hundreds of individual blooms.

The ray flowers along the edge are sterile, but they serve as landing strips to help guide pollinating insects to the disc flowers in the center. It is these that produce the seeds that will ensure the continuation of the species.

Purple coneflowers have similar looking blooms, but these are purple instead of yellow. There are also varieties of coneflower that have white or orange flowers. These grow to two to three feet in height and should be planted toward the rear of most perennial gardens. Both coneflowers and black-eyed Susans will bloom for much of the summer and early fall and need a sunny spot to do well.

There are several varieties of perennial salvia (not the plant that is smoked by some teenagers) that will provide color for many months, usually with flowers that are in the blue or purple range although there are white salvias. These plants usually grow up to three feet or so in height, with coarse leaves growing below the flower spikes. Salvia will attract bees, so don't plant them in a spot where they can cause a problem if you are allergic.

Dianthus comes in perennial forms, and these will flower for most of the summer. Some varieties have short, grey-green leaves that stay in a clump close to the ground while the flowers bloom on spikes ranging from six inches to a foot in height. Others have a more mounding habit and the blooms will form atop the larger green leaves.

While most varieties of daylily only bloom for a few weeks in the summer, there are a few that will bloom over and over from spring to fall. Most notable among these is Stella d'oro, a petite plant with small yellow flowers. This is a well-behaved variety of daylily, staying in a small clump rather than spreading out to form a huge colony like its cousins.

Stella d'oro can often be seen blooming in late fall or even early winter if it is in a protected location, and the flowers start blooming in spring before the daffodils have even started to wake up.

Speaking of daffodils, you can extend the blooming period of your landscape bed by adding bulbs such as the aforementioned narcissus (daffodil), and even some crocus if you would like to see some color in late winter. Since the flowers of crocus are usually pretty small, these wok best if planted near a door or walkway where they can be viewed from up close.

Tulips make a spectacular show from late spring through early summer, and you can plant varieties that bloom early, mid, or late season. Tulips won't return reliably past a couple of years, however, and will have to be replanted. Hyacinths will come back year after year, and the fragrant flowers produced by this bulb are usually pink, white, or blue.

You can plant bulbs that flower later in the summer, as well. Although lilies don't bloom all season, they are really pretty when they do flower. You can plant them toward the back of the garden as they usually grow fairly tall, and other plants in the front will help hide the stems once the flowers are gone.

Gladiolus is another summer flowering bulb that produces masses of color on tall spikes. There are gladioli of many colors from red and pink to green to even black. They are really eye-catching when they bloom, but they don't bloom for all that long.

Dahlias often have very large flowers in a variety of dazzling colors, but most of the bulbs are not cold hardy in our region. This means that you'll need to dig up the bulb after the first frost, and then replant it next spring. Many people find this to be too much trouble and just leave them in the ground and hope for a mild winter.

Next week I'll suggest some annuals that will help give color for most of the season, and give you some tips on preparing your landscape beds for a successful growing season.

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